The seductions of pilgrimage : sacred journeys afar and astray in the western religious tradition / edited by Michael A. Di Giovine, David Picard.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Jas' Elsner -- Introduction: pilgrimage and seduction in the abrahamic tradition / Michael A. Di Giovine and David Picard -- Purity as danger? Seduction and sexuality at Walsingham / Simon Coleman -- The seductions of guiding: Jewish-Israeli tour guides on the Christian holy land pilgrimage / Jackie Feldman -- "As if the road there is covered with honey": inquiries into the seductiveness of a Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona for Russian orthodox parish pilgrims / Julia Klimova -- The seductiveness of saints: interreligious pilgrimade sites in Hatay and the ritual transformations of agency / Jens Kreinath -- The seduction of the past in New Age pilgrimage / Jill Dubisch -- Seduction in the "gypsy pilgrimage" at Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer / Ellen Badone -- Seductions of suffering: stigmata, salvation and pilgrimage to the sanctuary of St. Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo / Michael A. Di Giovine -- The seductions of the Way: the return of the pilgrim and the road to compostela as a liminal space / Eduardo Chemin -- "Up in God's great cathedral": evangelism, astronauts, and the seductiveness of outer space / Deana L. Weibel.

The Seductions of Pilgrimage explores the simultaneously attractive and repellent, beguiling and alluring forms of seduction in pilgrimage. It focuses on the varied discursive, imaginative, and practical mechanisms of seduction that draw individual pilgrims to a pilgrimage site; the objects, places, and paradigms that pilgrims leave behind as they embark on their hyper-meaningful travel experience; and the often unforeseen elements that lead pilgrims off their desired course. Presenting the first comprehensive study of the role of seduction on individual pilgrims in the study of pilgrimage and tourism, it will appeal to scholars of anthropology, cultural geography, tourism, heritage, and religious studies.-- Provided by publisher.